Welcome to edition 495 of Insider Weekends. Insider buying declined again with insiders purchasing $60.21 million of stock last week compared to $73.75 million in the week prior. Selling on the other hand increased with insiders selling $2.18 billion of stock last week compared to $1.87 billion in the week prior. As we approach the end of the quarter and companies enter an earnings related quiet period, we are likely to see a decline in insider activity over the next few weeks.
Sell/Buy Ratio: The insider Sell/Buy ratio is calculated by dividing the total insider sales in a given week by total insider purchases that week. The adjusted ratio for last week went up to 36.25. In other words, insiders sold more than 36 times as much stock as they purchased. The Sell/Buy ratio this week compares unfavorably with the prior week, when the ratio stood at 25.42.
Note: As mentioned in the first post in this series, certain industries have their preferred metrics such as same store sales for retailers, funds from operations (FFO) for REITs and revenue per available room (RevPAR) for hotels that provide a better basis for comparison than simple valuation metrics. However metrics like Price/Earnings, Price/Sales and Enterprise Value/EBITDA included below should provide a good starting point for analyzing the majority of stocks.
Notable Insider Buys:
1. Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (EPD): $27.52
Chairman of the Board, Randa Duncan Williams acquired 636,000 units of this oil & gas midstream company, paying $26.27 per share for a total amount of $16.71 million. These units were purchased indirectly through a trust.